BL: Arctic Ice ‘Melting Fast,’ May Reach All-Time Low, Russia Says
By Maria Kolesnikova
July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Arctic sea ice is melting faster than expected and this season’s loss may match the record reached three years ago, Russia’s environmental agency said.
“Ice in the Arctic is melting very fast,” Federal Hydrometeorological and Environmental Monitoring Service chief Alexander Frolov said today.
The latest figures show that Arctic Ocean ice covered about 10.8 million square kilometers in June, less than at the same time in 2007, when the pack eventually shrank to an all-time low, Frolov told reporters in Moscow. The record was reached Sept. 16, 2007, when the so-called Arctic sea ice extent shrank to 4.14 million square kilometers (1.63 million miles), according to the National Snow and Data Center in the U.S.
Arctic ice coverage may fall as much as 30 percent below the average from 1979-2000, according to Frolov. “This means that many waterways will be ice-free,” he said.
Scientists have highlighted declining Arctic sea ice as an indicator of global warming. Recent “anomalies” suggest that the North Pole may be ice-free during summer within a few decades, rather than by 2080, which is the current prediction of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Frolov said.
“The ice may melt fully in summer and freeze in winter,” Frolov said. “This is one possible scenario.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Maria Kolesnikova in Moscow at mkolesnikova@bloomberg.net,
Last Updated: July 20, 2010 08:06 EDT
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